Hum, seeing as it's all in the same team, I'd doubt it to be ALF - they'd target both, logically, not just one? But polo and horse competition in general is pretty ridiculous, I wouldn't be surprised that a competitor or someone against the specific team did something like that, there's probably a bit of money involved in polo games...

And way to go, ALF, someone was telling me about releasing mink farms too... The minks are fed ground chicken all their life (they have a system that just plops it in their cage)... Now you release them, and all of them die from starvation - none of them know how to feed themselves, and they're very easy prey for predators, no instinct whatsoever - bred and raised in cages. Now tell me it's for the animal's own good. Riiight.

The number is up to 21 horses dead now and it just makes me want to cry thinking about it... being in the horse industry, I can just about guarantee that they were poisoned in some form. Hell, in the upper levels of ANY equestrian sport, people will even do it to their OWN horses- it's called insurance fraud.

The equine industry is full of nutballs. The research facility that I worked at for the last 5 weeks (and the horses were treated like ROYALTY, please nobody freak out) had a Grand Prix dressage horse that was donated to them for a tax break. Like the company who owned him didn't have enough money to give him a well deserved retreat after he was diagnosed with a neurological problem that keeps him from doing higher level competitions... At least he isn't meat, I guess.

FDA: Supplement, allegedly injected into Wellington polo horses that died, illegal in U.S.

By ANDREW MARRA and BILL DiPAOLO

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The 21 polo ponies that died in Wellington Sunday were all injected before the game with a government-banned vitamin supplement called Biodyl - and team members believe a tainted dose caused their deaths, the team's captain said.

Juan Martin Nero, captain of the Lechuza Caracas polo team, told the La Nacion newspaper of Buenos Aires that all of the horses had received Biodyl injections before the game.

Lechuza Caracas team members believe a tainted dose of a French-made vitamin supplement caused the 21 Wellington polo ponies' deaths.

"We don't have any doubts about the origin of the problem," Nero said. "There were five horses that weren't given the vitamin and they are the only ones that are fine."

Biodyl, a French-made supplement, is banned by the federal Food and Drug Administration and its sale or use in the United States is illegal, an FDA spokeswoman said.

If horses were injected with the supplement, "that would be illegal use of an unapproved drug," FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said.

Bioldyl is a French-made supplement that contains Vitamin B-12, selenium, potassium asparate and magnesium asparate. Last year, a shipment imported into the United States was rejected by FDA officials because it was deemed "a new animal drug which is unsafe," FDA records show.

La Nacion reported that its use is not prohibited in Argentina, where the Venezuelan-owned team's veterinarian and players are from.

Nero said that Biodyl "is what the horses are always given."

"For us the suspicions are that there was something bad in the laboratory," Nero said. "They're common vitamins that aren't given to improve performance but rather to help them recover from exhaustion."

Dr. Scott Swerdlin, a veterinarian at the Palm Beach Equine Club who helped treat the animals as they were dying, told the Post that a licensed veterinarian could obtain ingredients similar to Biodyl by submitting a prescription to a pharmacy containing the recipe for the supplement.

If Biodyl shows up on the tests, now being done in Kissimmee and Gainesville, an independent lab should determine if the Biodyl mix was correct, said Swerdlin.

"Biodyl is routinely used in Europe as a vitamin supplement," he said. "My practice does not use it."

FDA spokeswoman DeLancey said any effort to create a homemade version of Biodyl with the same ingredients also would be illegal.

"That would be considered 'compacting' and would be considered the illegal manufacturing of a new drug," she said.

"It's dangerous," Kentucky-based veterinarian Fernando Garcia told La Nacion. "Ordering it from France isn't an easy task, because you have to specify what its use will be and in what animal. In the case of the polo ponies' deaths I don't think it was Biodyl, but it could have been an imitation."

Well-known Wellington polo patron Neil Hirsch, who co-owns the Bridgehampton Polo Club on Long Island said vitamins are commonly used, but rarely administered on a game day.

"Everybody gives their polo horses vitamins," Hirsch said. "But they're given on a Monday or Tuesday when no one's playing. You just don't give them the day of a match."

Dr. Christie Ward, a veterinarian at the University of Minnesota, said that supplements are generally unlikely to harm horses but that some contain substances that could prove harmful in large quantities.

Selenium, a substance found in Biodyl, "can be toxic when administered at too high a level," she said.

But she added that "in general there does not seem to be any high incidence of adverse reactions."

As the investigation into the horses' deaths presses on, a swirl of speculation is surrounding the renowned polo team's Argentine veterinarian.

Felix Crespo, a former competitive polo player, was the Lechuza Caracas team's top man in charge of the horses' health, and he would have been the one to oversee their diet and any supplements or injections they may have received, people familiar with the team say.

A call to Crespo's cell phone in Argentina was answered by his daughter, who said he was still in Palm Beach County.

April 19: Veterinary Technician Ginny Powell administers care to a dying horse at the International Polo Club of Palm Beach in Wellington, Fla.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — An official at a Florida pharmacy said Thursday the business incorrectly prepared a supplement given to 21 polo horses that died over the weekend while preparing to play in a championship match.

Jennifer Beckett of Franck's Pharmacy in Ocala, Fla., told The Associated Press in a statement that the business conducted an internal investigation that found "the strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect." The statement did not say what the ingredient was.

Beckett, who's the pharmacy's chief operating officer, said the pharmacy is cooperating with an investigation by state authorities and the Food and Drug Administration.

The horses from the Venezuelan-owned Lechuza polo team began crumpling to the ground shortly before Sunday's U.S. Open match was supposed to begin, shocking a crowd of well-heeled spectators at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington.

"On an order from a veterinarian, Franck's Pharmacy prepared medication that was used to treat the 21 horses on the Lechuza Polo team," Beckett said. "As soon as we learned of the tragic incident, we conducted an internal investigation."

She said the report has been given to state authorities.

Lechuza also issued a statement to AP acknowledging that a Florida veterinarian wrote the prescription for the pharmacy to create a compound similar to Biodyl, a French-made supplement that includes vitamins and minerals and is not approved for use in the United States.

"Only horses treated with the compound became sick and died within 3 hours of treatment," Lechuza said in the statement. "Other horses that were not treated remain healthy and normal."

Lechuza also said it was cooperating with authorities that include the State Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Biodyl contains a combination of vitamin B12, a form of selenium called sodium selenite and other minerals. It is made in France by Duluth, Ga.-based animal pharmaceutical firm Merial Ltd. and can be given to horses to help with exhaustion. It is widely used abroad, but not approved in the U.S.Related Stories

Compound pharmacies can, among other things, add flavor, make substances into a powder or liquid or remove a certain compound that may have an adverse reaction in different animal species. Only in limited circumstances can they legally recreate a drug that is not approved in the U.S., according to the FDA.

Necropsies of the 21 horses found internal bleeding, some in the lungs, but offered no definitive clues to the cause of death.

FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey said compounding pharmacies cannot legally recreate existing drugs or supplements under patent. In most cases, they are also not allowed to recreate a medication that is not approved for use in the U.S.

On its Web site, the FDA says it generally defers to "state authorities regarding the day-to-day regulation of compounding by veterinarians and pharmacists."

However, the agency says it would "seriously consider enforcement action" if a pharmacy breaks federal law in compounding medications. It isn't yet clear Franck's broke the law.

Meanwhile, championship polo matches were scheduled to resume in Florida on Thursday, four days after the prized horses died.

The International Polo Club Palm Beach planned a memorial ceremony for the dead horses after Thursday's last match at the U.S. Open Polo Championship.

"There are no words to describe the sadness shared by everyone — particularly the devastated owners of those magnificent horses," the United States Polo Association said in a statement issued Wednesday.

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.

Whoa, someone's in for a good court case... I'd be livid if it were my horses.

But then again - by asking a pharmacy to recrate something illegal, it's sketchy to start with... Bad choice, the animals pay for better performance to please humans, once again... I know they say it's for recovery, but still.